CARGOCONNECT-APRIL2026 - Flipbook - Page 34
SPECIAL FEATURE : FMCG SUPPLY CHAIN
Strategy & Intelligence
— Global OOS Impact:
Out-of-Stock situations
cost global FMCG
companies billions
annually in lost impulse
and conversion
opportunities.
— Forecasting Evolution:
Traditional "Forecasting"
is being replaced by
"Autonomous Demand
Sensing" to eliminate the
bullwhip effect.
— Graph Neural
Networks:
Organisations deploy
GNNs to decode
millions of demand
variables, enabling
anticipatory stock
movements.
— Digital Twin
Simulation: Digital twins
simulate disruptions to
autonomously reroute
upstream supply,
ensuring uninterrupted
downstream delivery
— Competitive Shift:
Competition has moved
from brand-vs-brand
to the intelligence and
responsiveness of their
supply chains.
— Agentic Ecosystems:
Supply chains are
becoming "agentic", where
continuous decisionmaking is embedded
directly into operations.
— Social Sentiment Signals: Systems now detect
social sentiment to trigger autonomous responses
before demand peaks materialise.
signalling how capability development is becoming as critical as
technology deployment itself.
In fact, availability itself is emerging as the new battleground of
competition. As Gupta emphasises, “In today’s market, availability
is a key competitive factor. Organisations must be proactive rather
than reactive in supply chain planning to ensure that products
reach the market at the right time and in the right quantity.”
He re昀氀ects, the contest is no longer between brands alone, but
against the intelligence and responsiveness of their supply chains.
At a structural level, the industry’s shift toward proactive
planning is also being shaped by the need to manage volatility
across global sourcing and distribution networks. Megha Kaushik,
Head– Supply Chain Finance at Patanjali Foods-Ruchi Soya,
observes that supply chains today are moving beyond traditional
Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory logic toward hybrid preparedness
models that combine responsiveness with strategic bu昀昀ers. As
she explains, “It’s about stocking up just-in-time so that in case if
anything happens across the globe, we are there to combat it.” This
transition, Kaushik notes, re昀氀ects a broader industry consensus
that resilience and readiness must now operate alongside speed.
Equally critical to this transformation is the emergence of realtime shelf intelligence enabled by edge computing. The longstanding
friction between physical shelf conditions and digital inventory
records is steadily being eliminated as organisations deploy
computer vision systems capable of monitoring SKU presence,
placement, and expiry information with near-instant accuracy.
Paramane underscores the signi昀椀cance of this shift, noting, “When
34 | CARGOCONNECT APRIL 2026
shelf levels reach a critical threshold, systems can now
autonomously trigger replenishment actions rather than
simply issuing alerts. Such capabilities are rede昀椀ning
how FMCG organisations approach impulse-driven
consumption environments where availability gaps
directly translate into lost revenue opportunities.”
For many organisations, the transition toward
real-time inventory awareness is being reinforced
through distribution management platforms that
extend visibility beyond primary warehouses into
secondary and tertiary channel layers. Kaushik points
out, “With the help of the distribution management
software, you can track the inventory which is there
at the level… the entire holistic planning goes on in the
supply chain.” She agrees that this integrated visibility
is enabling companies to move decisively from reactive
replenishment cycles toward proactive availability
management across franchisee networks, distributors,
and retail touchpoints.
The growing importance of shelf-level visibility is also
evident from the perspective of retail-facing organisations managing large SKU portfolios. Drawing from his
experience operating extensive store networks, Saurabh
Kumar, CEO– FMCG & Retail, Kaleesuwari Re昀椀nery,
highlights, “Real-time shelf monitoring is one of the most
promising and awaited use-cases for deployment in our
industry.” In his words, “Edge-enabled systems, when
integrated with WMS, POS, and forecasting platforms, can
simultaneously address both stock-out and non-moving
inventory challenges while improving availability levels
signi昀椀cantly across retail environments.”
At the same time, FMCG supply chains are evolving
beyond forecasting accuracy alone toward execution
intelligence embedded directly within operations.
Tumul Raj, Associate VP– Supply Chain Engineering & Technology at Amway, notes that competitive
advantage is increasingly determined not by delivery
speed alone but by how e昀昀ectively systems translate
insights into coordinated action across ful昀椀lment nodes.
As he explains, “Decision-making is no longer episodic
or centrally orchestrated; it is continuous, distributed,
and embedded directly into operations. This shift toward
agentic supply chain ecosystems is enabling organisations
to reduce variability across order-to-delivery cycles
while strengthening predictability at scale.”
This shift toward embedded intelligence is also
reinforcing the importance of workforce capability
as a multiplier of digital transformation outcomes. As
Manivannan further observes, “Through our Centre of
Logistics Training for Excellence (COLTE) partnership,
we ensure teams are continuously upskilled and aligned
to process excellence and system usage,” re昀氀ecting how
predictive shelf availability is increasingly supported
not only by platforms and analytics but by structured
capability-building frameworks that strengthen execution
consistency across network layers.
Predictability itself is emerging as a de昀椀ning attribute
of modern FMCG distribution strategies. Vishwesh J
Nair, AVP– Business Excellence at The Belgian Wa昀툀e
Co., explains that even incremental improvements in
forecast accuracy can produce disproportionate gains
in shelf availability and service reliability. He elaborates,
